Complaints over Construction Quality of HDB Flats
Ministry of National DevelopmentSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Associate Professor Jamus Jerome Lim’s inquiry regarding the volume of construction quality complaints for housing estates and the resolution rates by developers. Minister for National Development Desmond Lee stated that 90% of HDB defect reports occur within the one-year Defects Liability Period (DLP), averaging 2.6 reports per flat. Most HDB defects are minor and resolved within the DLP, with report frequencies dropping to an average of 0.05 per unit by the third year post-completion. For private residential units and Executive Condominiums, feedback received by authorities represents approximately 1% of units completed over the past three years. While private rectifications follow individual Sale and Purchase Agreements, the government assists by forwarding specific complaints to developers to facilitate direct responses to home buyers.
Transcript
56 Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim asked the Minister for National Development (a) in the past three years, how many complaints has the Ministry or BCA received regarding the construction quality of housing estates in Singapore; and (b) what is the percentage of cases which have been resolved by the developer or contractor.
Mr Desmond Lee: For public housing, as mentioned in this House previously, based on BTO flats completed over the past five years, around 90% of the feedback on defects was received during the Defects Liability Period (DLP). On average, during the DLP, the number of reported defects per BTO flat was around 2.6, and this dropped significantly to 0.2 after the first year, 0.1 after the second year and 0.05 after the third year. The same trend has been observed for data taken over the past three years – that is, around 90% of the feedback on defects was received during the DLP. The vast majority of reported defects are minor and are rectified within the one-year DLP period. For any maintenance issues reported after the DLP, HDB will investigate the likely cause and advise flat owners on the follow-up action accordingly. If the issue is assessed to be due to an inherent defect or quality issue, HDB will engage the building contractor to rectify it.
For private housing, the approach for defects rectification is governed by the Sale and Purchase Agreement signed between the home buyers and the developer. MND does not receive the feedback that home buyers provide to the developers directly. The feedback that MND and BCA has received from residents regarding construction quality makes up around 1% of private residential and Executive Condominium (EC) units that have been completed over the past three years. Where the feedback relates to specific projects, agencies will provide the feedback to the developers, which will respond to the purchasers directly.